An El Salvadoran man, Jose Rigoberto Mejia-Cubias, has been sentenced to twenty-four months in federal prison for unlawful reentry after removal from the United States. The sentence was handed down on August 6, 2025, and will be served consecutively to a twenty-five-year sentence he received in Madison County Mississippi Circuit Court for sexual battery.
Mejia-Cubias was arrested by the Madison Police Department on January 30, 2025. He had been working as a bartender at a local restaurant when he was charged with sexually battering a patron. Immigration officials later determined that Mejia-Cubias was illegally present in the United States and had previously been removed to El Salvador on August 26, 2010. Following his arrest, Mejia-Cubias pled guilty to both state and federal charges.
The sentencing announcement came from Patrick A. Lemon, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi; Eric P. DeLaune, Special Agent-in-Charge for Homeland Security Investigations in New Orleans; and Brian Acuna, Acting Field Office Director of ICE/ERO in New Orleans.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kabah Ealy prosecuted the case.
